Inch by Inch, It's a Cinch!

Hi! I haven't posted to this blog in a long time. I trust you are well.

I recently wrote a new goal-setting article entitled Inch by Inch, It's a Cinch!

If you're interested in reading it, I'll tell you how to do so for free in a moment. But for now what I want to do is discuss some key lessons that I've found to be useful in accomplishing significant endeavours in both my personal and professional life. I hope you find this listing of those 7 lessons, and my brief elaborations, useful:

1. The first lesson is what I like to call The Principle of Small Steps. It is self-explanatory, so I won't waste your time by explaining it here. If you're interested, though, you may read more about it in Inch by Inch, It's a Cinch!

2. The second is the importance of NOT confusing a primary goal with an ancillary effect. Know for sure what it is that is truly important to you.

3. Third, track progress toward your important goal on a monthly basis. Doing so too often will prove frustrating, while doing so not often enough will cause you to miss out on the rich benefits of regular progress checks.

4. Fourth, when it comes to savings goals, don't lump all savings together. There are four different time horizons you should consider in this regard. You'll find more details here: Inch by Inch, It's a Cinch!

5. Fifth, don't chase after money for money's sake. The price you'll pay in terms of soul-destruction is too high.

6. Sixth, read voraciously and commit to lifelong learning.

7. Seventh, find your personal 'voice' and share that with the world with a view to making our tiny, interconnected planet a better place.

I hope you find those 7 brief ideas helpful to you in the week ahead. As always, thanks for dropping by. If you have any constructive thoughts on ways to achieve abiding, significant success, then please do leave a comment below.

You are always welcome to read some of my free articles on financial planning, goal-setting and time management at http://www.freecoolarticles.com/, or to help yourself to my free learning resources at my site's Gift Centre. Also, if you live in Malaysia, preferably in or close to Seremban and the Klang Valley, AND if you would like to consider using my services to attain long-term goals, you are welcome to learn about my financial planning, retirement planning or life planning consulting services by reading my bio. Thank you and take care.

Warmest regards,


Rajen


Rajen Devadason is CEO of RD Book Projects and its sister company RD WealthCreation Sdn Bhd. He lives in sunny, peaceful Malaysia with his gorgeous wife Rachel. He's a Malaysian Securities Commission-licensed financial planner, a life planning consultant, a professional speaker and a serial author... which probably explains why he's so exhausted! Some of his books are available here, and, if you're interested, here are some quotations he reckons are accurate, bold or cool.

Aim to Buy Low and Sell High!

Hi! How are you? Great, I hope.

We're getting very close to Christmas and the ensuing opportunity to start afresh with a brand New Year. It's likely you would like to use the remaining days of 2009 to lay the groundwork for greater long-term prosperity in the fast-approaching new decade - which technically should only start in 2011, but the transition from the two double-ohs to 2010 also seems like a great thing to latch on to as an excuse to celebrate and aim to continue to Get Better!

If you agree, then perhaps you might like to consider getting your finances in order so that you are able to put in place sound long-term strategies to take advantage of the one surefire principle of wealth building, buying low and selling high!

However, before any of us can do that, we need to courageously face whatever it is that keeps so many of us relatively poor during times of incredible opportunity. If this is something you're willing to do, then please read on...

Have you been on a roller coaster? I've been on terrifying ones in the US. After the screams – usually mine – have subsided, the sense of accomplishment is palpable. Well, investing intelligently in and through tough times is like successfully riding a wild roller coaster.

To benefit from the ups and downs of the market, we need to put in place intelligent saving and investing strategies that permit us to build long-term wealth using the one formula that's never changed, namely - as mentioned above - Buy Low and Sell High!

Unfortunately, our emotions often get the better of us! I ought to know; over the decades, I've lost money as markets crashed, and made money as those same markets recovered. Through all my travails, what I learnt was that when it came to riding the investing 'roller coaster', my emotions were not a reliable barometer. This was my problem:

When markets were high, I tended to get greedy and often felt the urge to jump in with even more money. When markets were low, I suffered pangs of fear and panic that caused me to want to bail out.

Over the years, though, I've ever so slowly learnt to re-engineer my thinking processes so that my emotional responses to market ups and downs are now often the exact opposite! That shift has vastly improved my investing batting average for myself and my financial planning clients.

What I've learnt is that the key to success in this arena is stripping away emotion from the process of wealth accumulation. I hope to write more on that subject soon, in this blog. In the meantime, though, if you have any thoughts of your own concerning 'buy low and sell high', please do leave a comment below.

You are always welcome to read some of my free articles on financial planning, goal-setting and time management at http://www.freecoolarticles.com/, or to help yourself to my free learning resources at my site's Gift Centre. Also, if you live in Malaysia, preferably in or close to Seremban and the Klang Valley, AND if you would like to consider using my services to attain long-term goals, you are welcome to learn about my financial planning, retirement planning or life planning consulting services by reading my bio. Thank you and take care.

Warmest regards,


Rajen


Rajen Devadason is CEO of RD Book Projects and its sister company RD WealthCreation Sdn Bhd. He lives in sunny, peaceful Malaysia with his gorgeous wife Rachel. He's a Malaysian Securities Commission-licensed financial planner, a life planning consultant, a professional speaker and a serial author... which probably explains why he's so exhausted! Some of his books are available here, and, if you're interested, here are some quotations he reckons are accurate, bold or cool.

Why is Saving So Important?

Hi! How often do you think about the basic skill of saving money in relation to your overall financial plan?

If your answer is 'not too often' then I would urge you to spend a few moments mulling over the importance you place on saving money. Why?

Well, the longer I work as a licensed financial planner who specialises in retirement funding solutions for 30- to 50-year-old individuals living in Malaysia, the more it seems to me that of all the necessary initiatives that contribute toward achieving financial freedom, saving is the single most important one. (If you'd like to know a little bit about me and my consulting services, you are welcome to check out my bio.)

In fact, I think so highly about the fundamental need for each of us to focus on savings that I actually have a dedicated page on the subject within the Quotation Archive of my FreeCoolArticles.com site.

If you have time, do visit the quotations page on savings and let me know what you think about the thoughts shared by:

John Demartini
Benjamin Franklin
Charlie Munger

and by

me.

As you consider what has been said in the past about savings, you might want to take things further by reading this article and then implementing the lessons you pick up from it.

That's it for today. Have fun!

Bye for now.


Warmest regards,


Rajen

PS. If you want to invest in a digital resource that will help you craft your mission statement so that you will quickly come to understand yourself better, you may buy my Special Report on that subject here.

Rajen Devadason is CEO of RD Book Projects and its sister company RD WealthCreation Sdn Bhd. He lives in sunny, peaceful Malaysia with his gorgeous wife Rachel. He's a Malaysian Securities Commission-licensed financial planner, a life planning consultant, a professional speaker and a serial author... which probably explains why he's so exhausted! Some of his books are available here, and, if you're interested, here are some quotations he reckons are accurate, bold or cool.